On November 8, 1998, a big match was played at the Friuli stadium in Udine. On the one hand there is Francesco Guidolin’s Udinese, of the Jorgensen-Amoroso-Poggi trident, with Bierhoff who had recently ended up at Milan after having won the top scorer ranking. On the other, Marcello Lippi’s Juventus, fresh from three consecutive Champions League finals and with Zidane behind Del Piero and Inzaghi. Two top-level teams facing each other with no holds barred: Zidane gives Juventus the lead, Inzaghi scores the second. Bachini and especially Pampa Sosa, during injury time, equalized and recovered a match that now seemed lost.
A minute earlier, however, something very serious had happened. Del Piero collapses on the ground and exitsleaving Juventus with ten men. The sporting part is not the worst, because the problem is the diagnosis: injury to the cruciate ligament, therefore a six-month stoppage which, in reality, will be much longer.
Del Piero himself, a few years ago, spoke of that moment as the worst of his career. “November 8, 1998, the day of the accident. It was terrible. I stopped for a year, when I was twenty-four, with the anxiety and uncertainty of recovery. But I discovered a strength of mind that I didn’t know, a capacity for suffering and reaction which allowed me to get the best out of that drama too.”
Udinese-Juventus 2-2
Markers: 44′ Zidane, 49′ Inzaghi, 65′ Bachini, 90+4′ Sosa.
Udinese
Turci, Pierini, Calori, Bertotto, Zanchi, Bachini, Walem, Appiah (80′ Navas), Jorgensen (56′ Locatelli), Amoroso, Poggi (76′ Sosa).
Trainer: Guidolin.
Juventus
Peruzzi, Tudor, Ferrara, (67′ Mirkovic), Iuliano, Birindelli (77′ Blanchard), Conte, Tacchinardi, Di Livio, Zidane, Inzaghi, Del Piero.
Trainer: Lippi.